Tag: Oracle

The year 2010 has seen a rapid change in the way people approach and use their computers, technology the Internet. Social networks had a growth boost and controversial political events framed the future of many companies in certain geographical regions of the world. However, 2010 has sure been an extremely successful time for acquisitions. Almost every tech-giant out there was on an acquisition spree. While some made the acquisitions for obvious reasons like controlling IP and killing competition, others made it to make use of the acquisitions as resources for development.

As you can see in this graph, the acquisition spree rose twice, once around April and another time around August. The August rise is completely dominated by Google, which took six companies. IBM has also maintained a consistent acquisition drive throughout the year.

The most notable acquisition spree was that of Google. It acquired a total of 25 companies in this term of 11 months. IBM lagged behind as the second one with 14 companies added under its banner.

Oracle had just acquired Sun Microsystems and started abusing its IP against the Google Android (Dalvik) implementation of Java VM technologies. The acquisition of Sun Microsystems brought a huge payload of IP for Oracle to abuse. HP acquired Palm and saved it from dying a sad death. Microsoft was busy with its latest Kinect toy and acquired Canesta, Inc. that deals in 3D sensing. AOL acquired TechCrunch and others players like Cisco were in the acquisition game too.

Counting by numbers, this puts roughly 70 acquisitions by companies that rather form the top notch of the tech industry. Just last year, this number was at 33, which is even less than 50% of what is happening this year. Surprisingly, the figure stood at around 55 in 2008 with IBM and Microsoft making 14 and 16 acquisitions each.

This shows that the void created during the recession has started an overdrive and the next year should be quite good for the IT industry.

Oracle and Apple have finally agreed on a stable port of Java for the Mac OS X that will be based on the OpenJDK project and will be built with help from both Apple and Oracle. The port includes features like,

a 32 64-bit HotSpot-based Java virtual machine, class libraries, a networking stack and the foundation for a new graphical client.

Following this, OpenJDK will make this port Open-Source to the public. It can work wonders with both Apple and Oracle supporting this move. While Apple is offering the Java SE 6, Oracle is at Java SE 7.

Just last month, Apple App Store called Java a “deprecated” technology and now, it is falling head over heels for the same Java technology. This attitude of Apple is so bothering because it lies to its users..

Apple app store and the quality check is just a facade. stupid torchlights and farting apps make it to the store easily and often make it t the top of the list.

Oracle’s Senior VP Hasan Rizv announced the service, saying,

The availability of Java on Mac OS X plays a key role in the cross-platform promise of the Java platform. The Java developer community can rest assured that the leading edge Java environment will continue to be available on Mac OS X in the future. Combined with last month’s announcement of IBM joining the OpenJDK, the project now has the backing of three of the biggest names in software.

Google has made a significant comeback in the Google-Oracle lawsuit and has presented strong answers to the lawsuit by clearly stating that the Dalvik VM is not the same as the Java VM and cannot be held as being the same.

Google blames the claims to be abstract and wants the patents declared invalid. According to Google, Oracle has deliberately compared the Oracle J2SE and the Android version of the code and made it look like the same by removing all copyright headers and expressive materials.

Google also blamed Oracle in their attitude towards the matter saying they,

impermissibly expand[ed] the scope of the Patents-in-Suit by requiring licensees to license items not covered by Oracle’s alleged intellectual property in order to receive a license to Oracle’s alleged intellectual property.

Google points out that the Dalvik VM is a part of Android that was manufactured by the OHA (Open Handset Alliance). It has nothing (or negligible traces) to do with the Dalvik VM code.

Catch up with the full story and live updates on the story at this page on Groklaw. It is time Oracle stops wasting time and money and makes use of these resources in a more productive way.

A few weeks ago, Steve Jobs had announced that they would no longer be developing a JRE/JDK for Apple Mac OS X. The decision did not go down well with the Open Source community and developers alike. However, it looks like they can now cool down because Oracle and Apple have announced a new partnership in the form of OpenJDK for OSX.

Java developers who use Mac OSX can breathe a sigh of relief after both Oracle and Apple jointlyannounced that they would be creating the OpenJDK project for Mac OS X. This means that Mac Java developers will soon get their hands on Java SE 7 including a JVM for both 32Bit and 64Bit machines.

We’re delighted to be working with Oracle to insure that there continues to be a great version of Java on the Mac, said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. The best way for our users to always have the most up to date and secure version of Java will be to get it directly from Oracle.

Apple will contribute to the OpenJDK project in key components, tools and technology required for Java SE 7 implementation on Mac OS X. The availability of the SDK might not be soon though as Oracle has stated that it is not easy to fork out a edition for a new platform, but it will be available in future.

Apache Software Foundation has finally woken up against Oracle’s outlook and abuse of Java. Oracle has done enough to upset everyone related to Java. With the killing of OpenOffice.org to the recent lawsuit against Google’s use of Java in the Dalvik VM, Oracle has done enough to raise an outcry and the ASF rising against Oracle is going to turn ugly for Oracle.

The ASF is the largest maintainer of Open Source projects. It has declared if Oracle continues with this attitude; the ASF will openly boycott the next version of Java coming from Oracle.

Why would we want to be in an organization where the rules of law don’t matter? Our being on the [JCP Executive Committee] would be a sham. It would show that the community doesn’t matter, that we’d basically cave into Oracle pushing stuff through, whether or not it would be in the best interest of the community.

ASF’s stronghold in the JCP Executive Committee and the threats to leave the position makes the matter even more serious for Oracle. What will come of this feud is unknown as Oracle is known to be stubborn but this is a matter of utmost importance and the decision will affect all businesses based around Java.

Oracle is serious about shelling out big bucks from Google and this can be clear from the way it is refining its lawsuit to keep Google entangled. The Lawsuit has been updated now to say, that Google Android directly “copied code” from (now) Oracle’s Java code.

The matter started in August, which, at that time was unclear about which copyrights Google was infringing upon. However, in a recent update to the lawsuit, Google has been accused with copied codes attached. Not just that, Oracle claims that a total of of-third of Android API packages are derived from Java API packages. In Oracle’s words,

The infringed elements of Oracle America’s copyrighted work include Java method and class names, definitions, organization, and parameters; the structure, organization and content of Java class libraries; and the content and organization of Java’s documentation.

In at least several instances, Android computer program code also was directly copied from copyrighted Oracle America code.

Google has not yet replied on these claims and its decision will have a decisive impact on the future of the Android OS. Oracle is playing a dirty game here, as it knows that the API libraries that Android uses forms a decisive part (1 /3rd) of its code and that Google has no other option but to comply. It would really help if Oracle channels its resources towards developing Java and taking care of other ignored projects and people.

After Oracle acquired SUN Microsystem, some leading members of the OpenOffice.org community forked OpenOffice.org as LibreOffice. They also set up The Document Foundation to continue the independent works of the OpenOffice.org community.

However, Oracle is not taking their move well. They want the founders of The Documents Foundation to leave the OpenOffice.org council. According to Oracle, their works with The Documents Foundation and LibreOffice will conflict with that of OpenOffice.org.

In many FOSS projects there is usually a free exchange of codes and ideas between the original project and the forked one. There is however little or no competition between them. The fact that Oracle mentions conflict of interest suggests that they see LibreOffice as a competitor and that they want tighter control over the direction that OpenOffice.org takes.

LibreOffice already has backing from a lot of companies including Google, Red Hat, Canonical and Novell. Moreover Mark Shuttleworth has also said that future releases of Ubuntu will ship with LibreOffice, not OpenOffice.org.

So, for now LibreOffice seems to be winning; although the developers will in all likelihood get kicked out from a project they have been working on for years.

There was a time when James Gosling was living a life of pride. His company Sun Microsystems was on a good head start and Java was moving closer to being a decisive platform in the world of programming. In the midst of all this, Sun forgot to manage their income source and invest in some finance improvement. Result: Sun came plummeting down and Oracle took the opportunity in buying it.

James Gosling, the lead Java developer gave an exclusive interview to eWeek outlining these details;

Just about anything, I could say that would be accurate and honest would do more harm than good. There is actually a long list of things that played into my leaving Oracle; here were things like my salary offer. After getting my offer from them, I tried to figure out what my compensation would be like on my W-2 form and it was a major hit. They copied my base salary!

The reason as given by James Gosling is,

Oracle is an extremely micromanaged company. Therefore, I and my peers in the Java area were not allowed to decide anything. All of our authority to decide anything evaporated.

Oracle has full power and authority over the intellectual property of Java and this upsets James Gosling.

In a press release from HP, both HP and Oracle have reaffirmed their long-term partnership and resolved the lawsuit was filed against Mark Hurd. The terms of settlement are confidential. Mark Hurd has promised to adhere to his obligations to protect HP’s confidential information while working at Oracle.

Both the companies CEO’s quoted about the settlement:

Quote from HP CFO and interim CEO Cathie Lesjak:

HP and Oracle have been important partners for more than twenty years and are committed to working together to provide exceptional products and service to our customers. We look forward to collaborating with Oracle in the future.

Quote from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison:

Oracle and HP will continue to build and expand a partnership that has already lasted for over 25 years.

What a way to start out the week after the long weekend. Just a day after Mark Hurd, the ousted HP CEOjoined Oracle as their No 2, HP filed a civil complaint against Mark Hurd stating that HP was looking to protect HP’s trade secrets which Hurd as CEO had full access to.

Despite being paid millions of dollars in cash, stock and stock options in exchange for Hurd’s agreements to protect HP’s trade secrets and confidential information during his employment and following his departure from his positions at HP as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President, HP is informed and believes and thereon alleges that Hurd has put HP’s most valuable trade secrets and confidential information in peril. Hurd accepted positions with Oracle Corporation (Oracle), a competitor of HP, yesterday as its President and as a member of its Board of Directors. In his new positions, Hurd will be in a situation in which he cannot perform his duties for Oracle without necessarily using and disclosing HP’s trade secrets and confidential information to others.

This quickly blew into a snow ball with several blogs and newspapers covering it. Oracle though did not wait long to respond to the lawsuit and in a small but terse response said that it would become difficult to continue working in partnership with HP.

Oracle has long viewed HP as an important partner,said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. By filing this vindictive lawsuit against Oracle and Mark Hurd, the HP board is acting with utter disregard for that partnership, our joint customers, and their own shareholders and employees. The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and HP to continue to cooperate and work together in the IT marketplace.

Oracle is not new to lawsuits, with them filing one against Google for the Android operating system over licensing issues with Java, which they acquired from Sun. With the HP lawsuit, it looks like Oracle will soon lose another long time partner.